Effect of pressure and temperature on the hydropyrolysis of cotton residue

With growing concerns of fossil fuel resources availability and the volatility of crude oil price, it is becoming imperative day by day to utilize the renewable sources of energy in a sustainable, environment friendly and energy efficient manner. India is the world’s second largest producer of cotton after China. India also has several agricultural and forest residues, and cotton residue is one of the most abundant agricultural residues after rice and wheat residues. The hydropyrolysis of cotton residues has been carried out at various pressures (1, 20 and 40 bar) and temperatures (300, 350, 400 and 450 °C). The effects of temperature and pressure have been studied to understand their yield patterns, and it has been observed that 20 bar pressure and 400 °C are the optimum conditions. The thermogravimetric analysis shows that cotton residue has two significant decomposition temperatures. The SEM, XRD patterns and FT-IR spectra clearly indicate the decomposition of the macromolecular structure of the cotton residue and formation of low molecular weight hydrocarbons suitable for various applications.     

Impact of posture and upper-limb muscle activity on grip strength

Purpose. The current research was carried out to determine grip strength (GS) with change in posture and upper-limb muscle activity of manual workers and investigate the impacts of these changes. Methods. For the current research, 120 male and 80 female participants were selected and GS was assessed using a digital hand grip dynamometer in various conditions. Results. The outcomes showed that male participants had higher GS as compared to female participants. Maximum GS was found in a standing posture with the fixed forward shoulder at 45°, elbow at 90° and a neutral position of the wrist and forearm for all participants. Conclusions. Higher values of GS were attained in standing postures which may result in attainment of higher performance levels by the workers. The outcomes justify the importance of correct postures during manual work in industries employing traditional methods.     

Porous material based on modified carbon and the effect of pore size distribution on the adsorption of methylene blue dye from an aqueous solution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Carbon porous materials obtained through KOH activation of a furfural?+?hydroquinone?+?urotropine mixture were applied as...     

Melatonin ameliorates chronic copper-induced lung injury

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Copper (Cu) is an important trace element required for several biological processes. The use of copper is increasing gradually in several...     

Organizational resilience and social-economic sustainability: COVID-19 perspective

Environment, Development and Sustainability - COVID-19 has affected the global economy like no other crisis in the history of mankind. It forced worldwide lockdown and economic shutdown to the...     

The impact of economic complexity on energy demand in OECD countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper investigates the role of economic complexity on energy demand using the panel dataset of 25 Organization for Economic Co-operation and...     

Multivariate assessment of outflow water quality in highly urbanized creek system: implication of natural and anthropogenic processes

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Nutrient source and transport study in tropical creeks adjacent to megacities are sparse on a regional and global scale. High-frequency chemical data...     

Molasses-based growth and lipid production by Chlorella pyrenoidosa: A potential feedstock for biodiesel

Biodiesel provides a feasible solution to the twin crisis of energy security and environmental concerns prevalent today, and it can be extracted from conventional oil crops as well as microalgae. However, lipid productivity in case of microalgae is much higher and has several advantages as compared with crop plants, so it is a better feedstock for biodiesel. In case of Chlorella pyrenoidosa, the heterotrophic cultured cells were found to be better in terms of lipid production, and ultimately biodiesel production, but the bottleneck is that in this mode glucose is used to feed the cells, which amounts to almost 80% of the total cost of biodiesel production. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and highlight the feasibility of using the industrially cheap cane molasses as a carbon source in place of glucose for a large-scale, low-cost lipid production of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. When treated molasses was used as a carbon source instead of glucose, the biomass sharply increases from 0.89 to 1.22 g L^–1. On the other hand, the total lipid content increases from 0.27 to 0.66 g g^–1. The specific growth rate and yield was higher in treated molasses as compared with that in glucose-supplemented. A mathematical model was also developed based on logistic, Luedeking–Piret, and Luedeking-Piret-like equations. Model predictions were in satisfactory agreement with the measured data, and the mode of lipid production was growth-associated.     

Prevalence of multidrug-resistant,coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus in nasal carriage,food, wastewater and paper currency in Jalandhar city (north-western), an Indian state of Punjab

Eighteen sites impacted by abandoned mine drainage (AMD) in Pennsylvania were sampled and measured for pH, acidity, alkalinity, metal ions, and sulfate. This study compared the accuracy of four acidity calculation methods with measured hot peroxide acidity and identified the most accurate calculation method for each site as a function of pH and sulfate concentration. Method E1 was the sum of proton and acidity based on total metal concentrations; method E2 added alkalinity; method E3 also accounted for aluminum speciation and temperature effects; and method E4 accounted for sulfate speciation. To evaluate errors between measured and predicted acidity, the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), the coefficient of determination (R ²), and the root mean square error to standard deviation ratio (RSR) methods were applied. The error evaluation results show that E1, E2, E3, and E4 sites were most accurate at 0, 9, 4, and 5 of the sites, respectively. Sites where E2 was most accurate had pH greater than 4.0 and less than 400 mg/L of sulfate. Sites where E3 was most accurate had pH greater than 4.0 and sulfate greater than 400 mg/L with two exceptions. Sites where E4 was most accurate had pH less than 4.0 and more than 400 mg/L sulfate with one exception. The results indicate that acidity in AMD-affected streams can be accurately predicted by using pH, alkalinity, sulfate, Fe(II), Mn(II), and Al(III) concentrations in one or more of the identified equations, and that the appropriate equation for prediction can be selected based on pH and sulfate concentration.